The Conference of the Italian Regional Science Association (AISRe), held in September 2023 in Naples, allowed scholars and policy makers to debate on the global issue of conflicts and transitions that are involving many regional economies worldwide, especially in the Euro-Mediterranean area. This book, collecting some contributions that were presented during the conference, aims at increasing the understanding of how regions are navigating and responding to the complex array of challenges they face in a rapidly changing world. The book considers a broad specification of conflicts that are closely related to the idea of exogenous shocks and consequent transitions interpreted as adaptation strategies to those shocks. The book is structured in two parts. The first part presents seven papers dealing with 'conflicts' of different nature such as regional disparities and cohesion, respect of law and social norms, occupational safety and health, urban congestion, gendered sectoral segregation, natural disasters. The second part of this book presents eight papers focuses on different types of 'transitions' related, for example, to climate change and environment, energy, digitalization and innovation. The book, even if does not cover all global conflicts and local responses comprehensively, however it provides useful insights to the debate on how regions are confronting the profound and often unexpected changes brought about by disruptive challenges.

Marco Modica is Associate Professor in Applied Economics at the GSSI. He is deputy coordinator of the Ph.D. program in Regional Science and Economic Geography at the GSSI and member of the teaching committee of the Ph. D program Natural Hazard and Disaster Risk Reduction held by the Consortium REDI. He is Associate Editor of Humanities and Social Sciences Communications edited by Springer Nature and Heliyon edited by Elsevier.

Davide Piacentino is Full Professor of Economic Statistics at the University of Palermo. He has been visiting scholar at University of Strathclyde and University of Sussex. He has published papers in leading journals such as Regional Studies, Spatial Economic Analysis, Papers in Regional Science, Geographical Analysis, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Population Space and Place, Journal of Technology Transfer.